Catalan climber Joaquim Rodriguez used his trademark explosive finish to dominate the short, brutally-steep climb to Mirador de Ézaro, hitting the line alone and fortifying his grip on the leader’s red jersey. The Katusha rider broke clear with Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Tinkoff Bank) on that ramp, distancing the other race contenders, and then powered ahead in the final 400 metres.

He opened up a considerable eight second gap over Contador in that time and when the bonus was taken into account, extended his overall lead to thirteen seconds. Alejandro Valverde came in third, closing his gap to Contador to four seconds inside the final kilometre, but losing four seconds in time bonuses.

“There was a moment when I looked at the other riders and I realized that Contador was following me. If he manages to stay in my slipstream in a finale like that, it means he’s going really well,” said Rodriguez, referring to his own recognised flair for such climbs. “I had in my mind to win the stage. With the work done by my team to set me up, I couldn’t do anything else but win up here,”

Robert Gesijk (Rabobank) was twenty seconds back with Chris Froome (Sky) and Dani Moreno (Katusha) another three behind.

The stage was one where Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Amael Moinard (BMC Racing Team) and Kevin De Weert (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) raced clear 75 kilometres in and built a lead of over five minutes.

They fought to stay ahead but didn't manage to build a big enough lead to hold off the explosion on the final climb. Astarloza and De Weert pushed ahead, the Euskaltel Euskadi rider stronger and getting a gap, but were overhauled well before the summit.

Rodriguez and Contador were the day’s big winners; the race leader has built a buffer, but the 2008 champion also gained time on Froome and Valverde, who are now 51 seconds and one minute 20 seconds back. Gesink is fifth, just under three minutes off red, with Moreno and Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale) sixth and seventh.

Contador can draw encouragement from the fact that longer climbs are coming up. Rodriguez is undoubtedly the best on short, sharp climbs, grabbing his second stage win today, but Contador’s forte is on the true cols. He’ll hope to be able to overcome his deficit there, although Rodriguez's fans will point to their rider's second overall in the Giro.
How the stage played out:

The 190 kilometre stage would follow an almost completely flat route but the final two kilometres to the line at Mirador de Ézaro would be steep uphill, giving an opportunity for the big guns to fire once again.

There were many short lived attacks early on but the significant move of the day didn’t get established until approximately 75 kilometres after the start, soon after another by Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ-BigMat), Steve Cummings (BMC), Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky) and David Moncoutie (Cofidis) was recaptured.

Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Amael Moinard (BMC Racing Team) and Kevin De Weert (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) raced clear and had a lead of five minutes 25 kilometres later. This ballooned to over seven minutes but dropped to just over six by the time Astarloza took the first intermediate sprint at Noja (km 128.4). Moinard took the next, 28 kilometres later.

The peloton continued to chase and to reduce the deficit, with riders swapping through. Further back in the peloton, a crash in the bunch took down Xavier Zandio (Sky) and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat), with the former being forced out of the race.

The break tried to maintain the lead but things were increasingly bleak. With ten kilometres to go the gap was two minutes; five kilometres later, it was under sixty seconds and as they hit the climb, it was down to 25.

Astarloza and De Weert pushed ahead, the Euskaltel Euskadi rider dropping the Belgian. Despite that, his team-mate Igor Anton kicked clear of the peloton and caught De Weert and then his team-mate.

Behind, the Katusha team set up an attack by Rodriguez, who was joined by Contador. Both soon passed Anton. Froome was distanced but Valverde and Navarro were inching back up.

Contador saw this and took over, driving the pace and reopening the gap on those behind. He led up towards the line, where Rodriguez used his explosive power to win the stage and extend his lead via the bonus.

Contador came in second, eight seconds back, with Valverde recovering somewhat and finishing thirteen seconds behind in third